All over the world cities want to be found attractive, so that people would like to live or work there or that people come to visit these places. Special organizations are founded to make this happen. These organizations create an identity for the city, after which they develop marketing strategies to fulfill this identity. These organizations have the intention to create a positive image for the city. This process is called citybranding. ‘IAmsterdam’, ‘het kan in Almere’, ‘Lelystad geeft lucht’ and ‘Rotterdam worldbrand’ are examples of citybranding in the Netherlands.
Before the rise of citybranding in the 1980s, the municipality was responsible for the image of the city. In those days the city and the municipality were seen as one. Nowadays there are two organizations who work for the city, they both are responsible for the image of the city. A city nowadays also has two corporate visual identities. First the visual identity of the municipality and second the corporate visual identity which is developed on account of the citybranding, also known as the city style. It is important these corporate visual identities are geared to one another. This research answers the question:
What is for municipal authorities the most successful way to combine the corporate visual identity of the municipal and the city style?
By means of preliminary analysis the current situation is analyzed. There is started with desk research. The most substantial result of this analysis is that cities and municipalities have to make three important choices that influence the success of uniting the styles. First they have to decide the degree to which the city style and the corporate visual identity of the municipal house style corresponds correspond. Secondly they have to determine whether to combine the styles in the communication to the stakeholders and the third choice has to do with making the city style public. Cities and municipalities can decide that they are the only ones who will use of the city style, but they can also decide that third parties such as organizations active in the city may use the city style.
To continue the preliminary analysis interviews were held with several municipalities and a communication office. During these conversations the policy choices which cities and municipalities make are reviewed. Discussed are the choices they make, why they make these choices and the advantages and disadvantages of these choices. Based on these interviews, five important aims which cities and municipalities have with their corporate visual identity have been identified. These are:
1. To create a positive image for the city.
2. To create a positive image for the municipal.
3. To create a reliable and upright image for the municipal.
4. Clarity, so that the receivers know who has send the message.
5. Visualize consistency between the municipal and the city.
With the use of surveys is examined to what extent the aims are influenced by the degree to which the city style and the corporate visual identity of the municipal visual correspond and the degree to which the styles get combined in the communication to the stakeholders. For this research a 3 (the degree of visual correspondence: very corresponding vs. partially corresponding vs. not corresponding styles) x2 (the degree of combining: combining the styles vs. not combining the styles) experimental research design has been developed. The 122 respondents with the minimum age of 18 years have been assigned to one of the six conditions and by means of three fictitious cities the investigation has been conducted.
It turned out that the consistency between the city and the municipality, and clarity are influenced by the policy choices. When cities and municipalities found it important that receivers know from who messages are coming it is recommended to use non or partially visually corresponding styles and not to combine them. When cities and municipalities want consistency between the city and the municipal it is recommended to use styles which are visually corresponding. The other aims, namely the image of the city, the image of the municipality and the reliability of the municipality are not influenced by these choices. They are influenced by the appraisal of the styles. If people like the styles, they will have a more positive image of the city, the municipal and reliability of the municipal.